Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Hello family... you are probably wondering why i did not E-mail yesterday. well the best answer that i have for you (because its not an excuse) is that yesterday Morning i had to go have an interview with President Becerra. Sunday i was thinking about the Temple and those kinds of things and i was like " oh shoot" i took out my recommend and it said it expires March 2012 so i went in to get a recommend... i thought about it a couple months ago but i was like i have enough time... i can wait a little bit. then it seemed the time caught up to me and i needed to get it renewed. so thats why i did not email yesterday, cause then a member took us out to lunch and we were busy after that... sorry, but dont worry because now you will have an email to read from me... YAY!

Ok so our week was totally sweet! well to start off we had Leadership training Tuesday and Wednesday from 10-3... that seems like a long time, but really it goes by so quickly.. and we learned so many things. it is so awesome to be able to go to those meetings! The main focus of both days was Faith... and by first creating it spiritually and then physically creating it. God saw it first in his head.. and then he created it physically. very interesting things to think about. so when we are out visiting people or knocking doors we will create it in our minds that we are going to sit down with these people and teach them, and if thats our motive and if we have the Faith that our Heavenly Father will Help us.. then he will and he will give us the very thing we need to say so that the people will let us in.... anyway it has been very interesting doing this. it has helped alot.

We also talked about " getting out of the Boat" we read the story of when Peter got out of the boat and walked on water towards Christ... it is very neat to apply to our lives and the ones of people we teach. i have learned alot from it.

The people we are teaching has gone up alot since this past week. we found 6 new investigators this past week and we found 2 new investigators the week before! it is so great... we have 16 investigators now and it is tough to keep up on all of them. we have to work on getting our progressing investigators up... we have 4 right now and one of them has a baptismal date. we will have a push this week to help these people understand why we want them to be Baptized... we are hoping to set a few more baptismal dates. it is frustrating when you testify to someone the importance of Baptism and when you show them how much it means to you and what it can do for them and then they just say to you well im not ready yet... i cant give up my bad habits. they are pretty much saying im not ready to be blessed by our Heavenly Father. Why would you prolong that? sometimes i just wonder ya know?

We received a referral this past week and he seems super solid. He is 19 and he has been through alot and he has also been to many churchs. He never really had family growing up... alot of stuff happened. he was just telling us how he just wants to feel that someone loves him and is there for him. he came to church and he was saying that it all sounded good, but he is just having a hard time believing it. i asked him why and said because something that you didnt grow up with and you dont know to much about is hard to just jump into and start believing. i agreed and we talked about that a little bit and we told him that we will help him on his way. i told him right before he left " we arent going to convince you that this is true and personally i dont want to convince you its true... we want you to find out for yourself." he really liked that because he has been to alof of churchs that were trying to force him to believe in what they were preaching.

so this past week has been good and we are hoping for big things this week!!

Mom i am sorry that i have not yet sent your letter... i will probably tomorrow because i left it at the apartment and we might not be going home until the end of the day because of miles and we have a busy day today, so i apologize, but it is coming!

I love you guys and hope you have the best week ever... everyone of you!!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Hey everyone!! how are you doing? well i guess that is always kind of a lame question, because i usually read your email before i type mine and it always says how you are all doing... so it sounds like you are all fine and doing good right?... i only have 18 more minutes before the computer kicks me off... i emailed president a longer email today.

anyway... so my exact release date is May 8th 2012, and the flights usually leave here between 10 and 11, so i will probably be arriving aroud 1 ish... thats kind of an educated guess but not really. oh... did you get my letter home that had my license information in it? whats the status on that?

This week was awesome!! i love it here! i dont know why i love it so much but it is great. the ward is super cool and im loving it already i know this is going to be a great way to end the mission... the best way!

i have already seen crazy things and have talked to people about some pretty serious stuff and it has changed my outlook on a couple different things. some of it is kind of overwhelming to think about. we have some people we are teaching in a pretty bad neighborhood. one where their is a shooting about once or twice a month. people are pretty nice to us, but i dont know how safe it is to walk there during the night. but ya know sometimes we have to do what we have to do... everyone needs the Gospel right? yeah alot of people around here are in need of this firm foundation in their life, but they just dont know where to find it.

we have alot of investigators and we found 2 more this past week! we are working with them and doing alot of good work!

we live with other Elders... they cover a spanish ward. they are really messy and i came into the apartment and have been cleaning up their crap. we have a cockroach problem and it seriously grosses me out, but im the only one who cleans. i dont like it one bit! so i will be continuing to clean up their nasty mess... and i WILL make them help!

anyway i am doing great and i am so happy! thank you so much for the gift cards... you guys are awesome!!

I wish you a very happy Birthday also Mother!! i hope its a good one for you. i am writing you a letter and i hope it gets to you on time!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Hello family! how are you all doing? i hope you are doing just fantastic, because i know i am! things are just going great here in California... well except for the weather... its been rainy the past couple of days. i swear the weather just needs to make up its mind here. is it going to be hot or cold? i thought it was sunny california?? that means it should stay hot!

anyway this past week was great! we got alot of things done. we also had another transfer end and well...

i only have 2 transfers left... 12 weeks. it is crazy as time goes on and i get closer and closer to that end date i just think of the things that i could have done better, and i try not to, but its hard. for some reason its alot easier to think of things that i could have done better than the things that i have done that have been great. These next 2 transfers are going to go fast because i am going to do all of the things better, so then i cant say i wish i would have done that better... it would be i did the best i could. its going to be great because i have been transferred back to the Chino zone. i am going to be serving in the Heritage ward. this part isnt Chino Hills... its a little more run down... or you could say ghetto! i am excited finally i get to serve in an area like this!! we cover a good chunk of Pomona. i guess president Becerra said we cant go down certain streets after 7... its going to be awesome!! i figure if i take a bullet to the arm or something... their is probably worse hahah!

its going to be super good though i am serving with Elder Edney... he has been out a little over a year and he is a very hard worker. Elder Tovey was staying in Glendora 5th and is training... i think that will be good for him, and i know he will do a good job.

I am the District Leader again... i keep going in an out of the District Leader Position. maybe this time i will get it right ;) i will have gone 9 transfers as a district leader at the end of my mission... thats a full year as District Leader. its kind of weird but i guess it is what it is right? i was told that i was the DL to kind of Rally the District and get them excited and help with some of their investigators... it has kind of been a younger District for a while and so i guess i am just suppose to help them out a little bit... i will do whatever the Lord wants me to do and this is one of those things. it will be good i couldnt have picked a better way to end my mission... Chino AHH YEEEAH!!

alot of people dont like it here but i love it... so what if its a little challenging... you think Alma the younger and the sons of Mosiah didnt have a challenge? i think its the best way i will grow by being here in Chino!

i got the package this past week! it was awesome thank you very much for that...

oh did you get my letter that i sent? it was with my license information? let me know what the next step is.